Pallets and dollies are in extensive use worldwide to facilitate the movement of goods. Both pallets and dollies may be described as low to the ground, portable platforms on which goods may be stacked for storage or moving. The two devices are distinguished primarily by their type of undersurface or ground contact. Pallets have a fixed, non-rolling, bottom surface, whereas dollies have wheels, with or without brakes.
A common type of pallet bottom surface is a skid, which is a continuous plank that provides support along its whole length. Pallets generally also include open ends configured to receive the forks of a manual pallet jack, motorized forklift truck, or other lifting device, so that the palletized load can be raised and moved about easily.
Pallets are particularly suitable for storing goods, such as in a racking arrangement, at a warehouse, moving goods on conveyor belts and roll conveyors, and for transporting goods between distant locations, where the pallets are loaded onto shipping containers, trucks, railway cars, and other vehicles. Dollies are better suited for the internal movement of goods within a given location where pallet moving equipment such as manual pallet jacks or forklift trucks would be unwieldy or costly. For example, unloading a shipment of goods at a supermarket is often more efficiently accomplished by having a stocking clerk wheel a dolly holding the goods to the appropriate display section of the store, rather than through use of a forklift.
One drawback to existing pallets and dollies is that they have a fixed planar surface area, or footprint, to accommodate loads of varying sizes. In some instances, the load area exceeds the footprint of the dolly and the load is subject to tipping or falling from the dolly. The present invention provides a mechanism connected to the dolly that can be moved from a stowed position, where the pallet has a first support area, to a deployed position where the total pallet support area is the sum of the first support area and an overhang area defined by a supplemental support surface adjacent the deck and created by the mechanism.